The Fondation Toms Pauli’s modern collection reflects the profound transformations that characterised tapestry art in the second half of the 20th century, and to which the various editions of the Lausanne International Tapestry Biennials contributed in no small measure.
Most of the artists represented in this collection had exhibited at the Lausanne Biennials. Breaking away from classical tradition, they explored new artistic paths, some inspired by the past, others radically innovative. In reinterpreting the medium, they employed novel techniques and materials, while experimenting with notions of volume, spatial installation, and conceptualisation. The works in the collection thus testify to the diversity and rapid transformations in textile art when the New Tapestry and Fiber Art movements spread across the world from the 1960s to the 1990s. As such, these historical works have earned a recognised place within the history of 20th-century art.
Formed through several major donations and a targeted acquisition policy, the modern collection aspires to represent the wide range of artistic tendencies that shaped textile art in the latter half of the 20th century.
The nucleus of the modern collection was constituted by the gift of 46 textile works assembled by the Association Pierre Pauli and donated to the State of Vaud in 1996. Founded in 1979 in memory of Pierre Pauli (1916–1970)—the first curator of Lausanne’s Museum of Decorative Arts and commissioner of the International Tapestry Biennial until his death in 1970—the Association brought together nearly fifty artists, most of whom contributed a significant work on joining. The majority of the leading international figures in textile art—European, American, and Japanese—who participated in the Lausanne Biennials between 1962 and 1995 are represented, including Machiko Agano, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Jagoda Buić, Lia Cook, Pierre Daquin, Olga de Amaral, Elsi Giauque, Sheila Hicks, Naomi Kobayashi, Maria Łaszkiewicz, Jean Lurçat, Aurèlia Muñoz, Jolanta Owidzka, Mariette Rousseau-Vermette, Wojciech Sadley, and Lenore Tawney.
In 2005, the Lausanne collectors Pierre Magnenat—founder and president of the Association Pierre Pauli, and instigator of its donation to the State of Vaud—and his wife Marguerite reaffirmed privately their wish to see the Fondation Toms Pauli collections enriched. They donated 76 works patiently acquired since 1965: tapestries, installations, sculptures, mini-textiles, collages, paintings, and drawings, which included a major corpus of works by the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz.
Gallerist, collector, and patron, Alice Pauli, wife of Pierre Pauli, also supported the Foundation with donations of textile works from her personal collection. Following an initial gift in 1999, she donated a further ensemble of 22 works in 2012 to mark her commitment to the new museum- district project and to affirm Fondation Toms Pauli’s role within it. This donation included works by leading 20th-century textile artists with whom she had close ties: Abakanowicz, Buić, Hicks, Lurçat, Łaszkiewicz, and Rousseau-Vermette.
Apart from these major donations, which have significantly shaped the nature of the collection, the Foundation has received additional gifts from artists and private individuals, as well as several long-term loans from the art collection of the Banque Cantonale Vaudoise. Grateful acknowledgement is extended here to all for their generosity.
The modern collection, comprising more than 230 works, encompasses decorative and symbolic tapestries by painter-cartoonists such as Jean Lurçat and Mario Prassinos; works distinguished by their exploration of colour and texture, such as those of Canadian artist Mariette Rousseau-Vermette, Polish artist Jolanta Owidzka, and French artist Pierre Daquin; ethereal textile installations by the Japanese artists Naomi Kobayashi and Machiko Agano; and environmental works by American artists Carol Shaw-Sutton, Lillian Elliott, and Patricia Hickman.
Fondation Toms Pauli also holds the most extensive collection outside Poland of works by Magdalena Abakanowicz, tracing the different phases of her career prior to her engagement with bronze, metal, and stone sculpture. Works by Jagoda Buić, another major figure in the field, are also well represented, notably the monumental installation Hommage à Pierre Pauli, presented at the 1971 Biennial. The collection likewise highlights creations by internationally renowned textile artists such as Sheila Hicks, Aurèlia Muñoz, Olga de Amaral, Ritzi Jacobi, and Lia Cook. Committed to showcasing the pioneering contributions of Swiss artists, the collection also includes spatial sculptures by Elsi Giauque and Moïk Schiele, knotted constructions by Françoise Grossen, and delicate embroideries by Lissy Funk and Liselotte Siegfried. In keeping with the evolving directions of the Lausanne Biennials, the collection reflects the emergence of diverse materials and approaches over the years, such as the large paper environments of Michelle Héon and Anne Pixley Flaten, the steel-wire works of Susan Marie Johnson, and the copper and iron thread creations of Karen Hansen.
Artists of the Modern Collection
A - C
Magdalena Abakanowicz (Poland, 1930-2017)
Machiko Agano (Japan, 1953)
Olga de Amaral (Colombia, 1932)
Christine Aymon (Switzerland, 1953)
Bistra Lechevalier (Bulgaria/France, 1933)
Cyril Bourquin (France/Switzerland, 1930)
Krystyna Brodzka-Piatkowska (Poland, 1923-2008)
Verena Brunner (Switzerland, 1945)
Jagoda Buić (Croatia, 1930-2022)
Zofia Butrymowicz (Poland, 1904-1987)
Marguerite Carau (Switzerland, 1928-2008)
Pierre Chevalley (Switzerland, 1926-2006)
Maria Teresa Chojnacka (Poland, 1931-2023)
Madeleine Colaço Ribeiro (Brazil, 1907-2001)
Lia Cook (USA, 1942)
Krystyna Czarnocka (Poland, 1920-2005)
D - H
Pierre Daquin (France, 1936)
Sonia Delaunay (Ukraine/France, 1885-1979)
Lillian Elliott (USA, 1930-1994)
Shigeki Fukumoto (Japan, 1946)
Lissy Funk (Switzerland, 1909-2005)
Elsi Giauque (Switzerland, 1900-1989)
Kazimiera Gidaszewska (Poland, 1924-2008)
Suellen Glashausser (USA, 1945-2000)
Pierrette Gonseth-Favre (Switzerland, 1943)
Josep Grau-Garriga (Spain, 1929-2011)
Helen Frances Gregor (Canada, 1921-1989)
Françoise Grossen (Switzerland, 1943)
Kati Gulyas (Hungary, 1945)
Karen Hansen (Denmark, 1943)
Michelle Héon (Canada, 1948)
Patricia Hickman (USA, 1941)
Sheila Hicks (USA / France, 1934)
Jan Hladik (Czech Republic, 1927-2018)
Jenny Hladikova (Czech Republic, 1930-2022)
I - L
Kiyomi Iwata (Japan/USA, 1941)
Ritzi Jacobi (Romania/Germany, 1941-2022)
Peter Jacobi (Romania/Germany, 1935)
Arthur Jobin (Switzerland, 1927-2000)
Susan-Marie Johnson (USA, 1948)
Hanna Jung (Poland, 1927-1982)
Naomi Kobayashi (Japan, 1945)
Rosemarie Koczÿ (Germany/Switzerland/USA, 1939-2007)
Maria Łaszkiewicz (Latvia, 1892-1981)
Barbara Levittoux-Swiderska (Poland, 1933-2019)
Charlotte Lindgren (Canada, 1931-2023)
Jean Lurçat (France, 1892-1966)
M - R
Marcel Marois (Canada, 1949)
Anne-Marie Matter (Switzerland, 1936-2007)
Rebecca Medel (USA, 1947)
Gilles Morisette (Canada, 1955)
Aurèlia Muñoz (Spain, 1926-2011)
Jolanta Owidzka (Poland, 1927-2020)
Ooi Keiko (Japan, 1953)
Anne Flaten Pixley (France, 1932)
Mario Prassinos (Greece/France, 1916-1985)
Françoise Ragno (Switzerland/France, 1936-2025)
Debra Rapoport (USA, 1945)
Mariette Rousseau-Vermette (Canada, 1926-2006)
S - Z
Wojciech Sadley (Poland, 1932-2023)
Moïk Schiele (Switzerland, 1938-1993)
Edda Seidl-Reiter (Austria, 1940-2022)
Carol Shaw-Sutton (USA, 1948)
Verena Sieber-Fuchs (Switzerland, 1943)
Liselotte Siegfried (Switzerland, 1935)
Alicja Siodlowska-Wisniewska (Poland, 1921-2009)
Beatrix Sitter-Liver (Switzerland, 1938-2023)
Sherri Smith (USA, 1943)
Marialuisa Sponga (Italy, 1942-2015)
Marlise Staehelin (Switzerland, 1927-1991)
Marika Szaraz (Hungary, 1947)
Hideho Tanaka (Japan, 1942)
Lenore Tawney (USA, 1907-2007)
Janina Tworek-Pierzgalska (Poland, 1933-1982)
Michel Vouga (France, 1931-1996)
Anne Wilson (USA, 1949)
Krystyna Wojtyna-Drouet (Poland, 1926)
Mariyo Yagi (Japan/USA, 1948)
Works of the Foundation
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Fondation Toms Pauli continues to enrich its collections through the acquisition of major works by artists who participated in the Lausanne Biennials.
Since relocating to Plateforme 10 in 2020, the Foundation has added to its modern collection several works and installations by Swiss and international artists, including a monumental, web-like creation by Machiko Agano; two wall and spatial works by Elsi Giauque; tapestries by Mario Prassinos; embroideries by Lissy Funk; an extraordinary pair of folding screens by Shigeki Fukumoto; a floor covering composed of more than 530 spools of steel thread, conceived by Susan Marie Johnson for the 1981 Biennial; a vast and delicate wall poem by Verena Brunner; and six emblematic works by Cyril Bourquin.
La collection XXe continue de s’agrandir
Depuis l’emménagement de notre fondation à Plateforme 10, la collection XXe siècle continue de s’agrandir.
Suisse, Japon, France, USA ; tapisserie, sculpture ou mobilier ; laine, coton, fibres synthétiques, métal : découvrez ici les dernières acquisitions
- créations contemporaines aériennes des artistes Machiko Agano et Verena Brunner,
- huit tapisseries XXe siècle de Françoise Ragno, Pierrette Gonseth-Favre, Arthur Jobin et Michel Vouga, en prêt à long terme de la Collection d’art de la Banque Cantonale Vaudoise (BCV),
- deux œuvres de Elsi Giauque, conçues avec Käthi Wenger, illustrant le chemin du mur à l’espace,
- deux broderies abstraites de Lissy Funk,
- un tapis de plus de 550 bobines de fils d’acier imaginé par Susan Marie Johnson pour la 10e Biennale 1981,
- un extraordinaire paravent en deux panneaux de Shigeki Fukumoto, proche de l’oeuvre exposée à la 7e Biennale de 1975.
Tapisserie ?
En 2018, la Fondation Toms Pauli accroît sa collection XXe siècle avec Trackings, œuvre de l'artiste américaine Anne Wilson, exposée à Lausanne lors de 14e Biennale de la tapisserie de 1989.
De nouvelles œuvres du XXe siècle entre dans la collection
Jagoda Buić, Lia Cook, Pierre Daquin, Sonia Delaunay, Jean Lurçat, Mario Prassinos, Mariette Rousseau-Vermette, Hideho Tanaka, dix œuvres d’artistes renommés de l’art textile du XXe siècle entrent dans la collection moderne en 2015.
Grâce à la générosité de plusieurs artistes, collectionneurs et donateurs privés, la Fondation Toms Pauli a accru en 2015 sa collection contemporaine de dix œuvres représentatives des grands noms de la Nouvelle tapisserie à travers le monde – Europe, Etats-Unis, Canada et Japon.
Tapisseries classiques aux motifs stylisés de Jean Lurçat et de Mario Prassinos, géométrisation colorée de Sonia Delaunay, compositions originales de Mariette Rousseau-Vermette et de Pierre Daquin, œuvres marquantes des Biennales de la Tapisserie pour Jagoda Buić, Lia Cook et Hideho Tanaka, ces créations témoignent avec éclat du développement de l’art textile dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle. Elles rappellent en outre le rôle de laboratoire international de recherche joué par la Biennale de Lausanne entre 1962 et 1995.
Tapisserie de Jean Lurçat
Acquise par un mécène en 2013 pour être offerte à la Fondation, la tapisserie Mexico enrichit et complète judicieusement les œuvres de l’artiste déjà dans les collections. Cette tapisserie très décorative tissée dans l’atelier Tabard à Aubusson est typique de la production d’après-guerre de Jean Lurçat.